Brown Dwarfs in the Alpha Persei Cluster

Stauffer, John R.; Barrado y Navascués, David; Bouvier, Jerome; Lodieu, Nicholas; McCaughrean, Mark
Bibliographical reference

Brown Dwarfs, Proceedings of IAU Symposium #211, held 20-24 May 2002 at University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. Edited by Eduardo Martín. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2003, p. 163

Advertised on:
6
2003
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
5
Refereed citations
5
Description
We have obtained a new, deep, wide-field optical imaging survey of the young Alpha Persei cluster which reveals a well-populated lower main sequence extending into the substellar mass regime. Subsequent infrared photometry confirms that most of the candidate brown dwarfs are indeed likely to be cluster members, with a predicted minimum mass of order 0.035 solar masses. We have combined the new candidate list with previous member catalogs to derive an IMF for Alpha Per; the slope of the IMF at the low mass end is α ˜ 0.6. The Alpha Per IMF slope is thus very similar to that found in the Pleiades.